Meditation – The Mindful Initiative: Recent Episodes
The Mindful Initiative
Shantala SriramaiahIn the 25th Episode of The Mindful Initiative, we speak to my Veda Chanting Teacher, Shantala Sriramaiah. Shantala teaches Vedic Chanting to people worldwide through her online portal Veda Studies. According to Shantala, Vedic Chants create positive vibrations, and these vibrations can uplift us, especially during challenging times. These vibrations originate in our abdomen and travel through our lungs. In the current times, we can use some of the vibrations for uplifting our spirit, create an anchor that can hold us through these extremely trying times. This episode may introduce Vedic Chanting to you and for others, it may serve as a reminder for you to get back to your chanting or keep chanting.
Our 25th Episode marks the 3 year anniversary of The Mindful Initiative Podcast. With so many of our friends, family, children, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts suffering, it is difficult to even use the word celebrate. However, I would like to take this moment to acknowledge and Thank all our listeners, who have been listening to us, providing constant feedback so we can keep delivering top-quality content. Thank you to all our previous guests for sharing your lives with us, our advisors, our most ardent volunteer Gita Venkataramaiah, Pranjali, Naureen and our Editor Juan Pablo Velasquez Luna.
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About Shantala Sriramaiah
Shantala has been inspired by her mother Saroja, who taught chanting classes in their home for over 30 years, she is very grateful to the early exposure to Sanskrit chanting and Indian scriptures through her family tradition and school education. Born and raised in Bangalore, India, Shantala is an Engineer by qualification and enjoyed a 20-year career specializing in Learning & Development before making the change to Veda chanting classes to continue her family tradition. Her teaching draws from her previous experience, bringing structure, detail, and clear objectives and methodology to all the classes & courses. She has developed a unique system to accurately and completely transmit all the nuances of Vedic phonetics to help support students learn without error. She is a student of Sri M. S. Sreenivasan of The Challakere Brothers who has been guiding her Veda recitation practice and mentoring her teaching.
She lives in Brussels, Belgium with her husband and two small children.
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Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT)
Before we introduce this week’s speaker – I want to inform you about our offering of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), a one of it’s kind program – developed at Stanford University. This 8-week course draws from many contemplative practices and is backed by science. It has helped thousands find purpose and happiness by relating to themselves, others, and the world around with greater understanding and kindness. To find out more information please visit our website (www.compassioncultivation.in).
Shabnam VirmaniOur 20th episode features, Shabnam Virmani.
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About Shabnam
Shabnam Virmani is a National Award winning documentary filmmaker, a soulful singer, an enigmatic storyteller and an inspirational writer. Shabnam has been exploring the myriad possibilities and power of mystic poetry and its oral traditions. It was during the Gujarat riots of 2002 that she started to explore deeper questions of life in the words of the 15th century mystic poet Kabir. The same year, Shabnam was invited to be artist-in-residence at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore. She founded the Kabir Project which brings together experiences to understand Kabir and other mystics. You can find more information about the Kabir project that Shabnam on her website. Visit her YouTube channel to listen to her soulful renditions of Kabir bhajans and other works.
In 1990, Shabnam co-founded the ‘Drishti Media, Arts and Human Rights collective‘ in Ahmedabad. As the co-founder of the Drishti Media Arts and Human Rights collective, she has directed several documentaries, including the national award winning, Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein (In the Market Stands Kabir).
Prior to founding Drishti Media, as a young reporter, Shabnam broke the story of Roop Kanwar’s sati in Rajasthan which became a landmark report, and the issue was later taken up by a powerful women’s movement. Shabnam has studied journalism at Times Research Foundation in Delhi and communication at Cornell University.
You can visit the transcription of this podcast by clicking the Transcription tab below.
Editing: Juan Pablo Velasquez Luna
Transcription: Gita Venkat and Madhusmita Misra
Welcome to Episode 29 of The Mindful Initiative. This episode was recorded during the pandemic. Our guest for the podcast is Krishna Das – a Grammy Award Nominee – Kirtan Singer. We are grateful that we could have him as our first guest for the video series. Since this is our first video podcast – so you can listen to it on YouTube.
I first heard Krishna Das live in 2015 during his annual Kirtan event in New York in a church on Thanksgiving night with Manaswini.
There were people from all faiths. The gathering had new mothers, to people in wheelchairs.
All seats were taken, people were standing on the balcony, and we were fortunate to get a spot on the floor right in front of him.
It was not only mesmerizing to hear him live but also to see so many sing, dance, and meditate, all at the same time.
There is no one else like Krishna Das – there is no one else who sings like him – there is no one whose music touches you like his.
During the podcast, Krishna Das I talked about what it means to practice and how to deal with death and his teacher Neem Karoli Baba.
I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation.
About Krishna Das:
Krishna Das began leading chanting in 1994 in NYC, and has been traveling all around the world ever since, developing his signature style, fusing traditional kirtan of the East with western harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities. The audiences have been ever growing, responding to his remarkably soulful voice, which touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener. He’s taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, is a Grammy-nominee and has become a worldwide icon. He continues to travel and to share online his chanting and stories of his guru Neem Karoli Baba. and the best- selling western chant artist of all time. Krishna Das has released over 15 albums, authored 2 books, has his own podcast and is the subject of the documentary – One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das. More information on https://www.KrishnaDas.com
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Welcome to a new season of The Mindful Initiative Podcast. We are returning after a year and are extremely happy to bring back a series of new episodes. The new episodes will now be released on YouTube along with the existing audio Podcasts. Our next podcast will feature Grammy Award Nominee one and only Krishna […]
Welcome to Episode 28 of The Mindful Initiative Podcast with Swami Sarvapriyananda ji, the current resident Swami and head of Vedanta Society of New York (VSNY). He is a monk of the Ramakrishna Mission. I have been extremely blessed to meet many spiritual teachers on my life journey. Each person has helped me move […]
Thank You so much for being a dedicated listener of The Mindful Initiative Podcast. Before you read about the podcast, I would like to let you know that I will be offering Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), an 8-week course developed at Stanford University from July 10th to Aug 28th. This course helps manage emotions, […]
In Episode 26, I speak to Dr. R Balasubramaniam (Dr. Balu). Dr. Balu is a Grassroots Physician. His life has been inspired by the work and life of Swami Vivekananda. Like Swami Vivekananda, Dr. Balu has dedicated his life to upliftment and to the betterment of the underserved. His kindness, wisdom, and clarity of […]